


A Shoulder To Lean On

by PigSlay



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alchol, Other, girl is seriously drunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9393791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PigSlay/pseuds/PigSlay
Summary: Camila has just quit the band and is sad and lonely. She goes out to a club  in LA and runs into Zayn.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know Zayn or Camila (although I did hug her during the Neon Lights Tour – and now I’m even more thankful for that). I wrote this because writing fanfiction is how I deal with stressful situations and get out my emotions. I DON'T CLAIM ANY OF THIS AS TRUE (because at this point I really don't know who's telling the truth and who's lying); I'm not accusing the girls of being liars, I'm writing from Camila's POV not mine.

Camila is sad. She didn’t mean for things to end that badly. She’s been wanting to leave for a while now, and they knew that; the fact that they want to pretend they didn’t to look like the good guys on Twitter is really messed up.

She’s thankful for Dinah, at least, who made sure she knew she was loved as she was leaving. She hopes she and Dinah will be friends for many more years to come.

She decides that what she needs to do tonight is not think, so she finds herself going to one of the local clubs that pretend not to notice that she’s nineteen and getting drunk.

When she gets there she wastes no time in buying a bunch of shots and taking them all down at once. Slowly but surely all sad thoughts fade into blobs floating around in her head. She heads to the dancefloor and lets all the built-up energy from the past few days out. Her song “Bad Things” comes on at one point and she finds herself doing moves she didn’t know she could do.

When she goes back to the bar and starts downing some more shots, she notices a familiar face. Zayn Malik. Because she’s pretty darn tipsy right now, she doesn’t think twice before talking to him like she probably would otherwise.

“Hey Zayn-yyy,” she giggles. “What brings you round to these parts?”

“Wha-?” Zayn looks around a little bit before landing on Camila’s face. “Oh, hi… Do I know you?”

“Yes, silly, I’m one of the girls from Fif-” she stops herself, sobering up just a little bit and feeling a little sad again that she has to correct herself. “Uh… I mean I met you a few years ago at the Kids Choice Awards.”

He still looks confused but then seems to put two and two together. “Oh right, I remember you. I didn’t recognize you all… smashed. Are you even legally allowed to be drinking-”

“Shhh,” she puts her finger on what she thinks is his mouth but is probably his cheek or something. “Of course I am.” She gives him a big wink.

He chuckles, taking her hand away. “Alright, sure. And to answer your question, I’m down here for my birthday. The LA clubs are way better than the ones in London.”

“Got’cha. Well, happy birthday!” she calls a little louder than intended.

He giggles at her loudness. “Thanks.”

Because her head-to-mouth filter left about an hour ago, the next thing she says she says without realizing it. “I now understand why you left the band. I didn’t really get it at the time but now I think I do.” He raises his eyebrows. “I mean it’s fun at first, getting to chase your dream with four new friends – who later screw you over…” She drinks more alcohol in between sentences. “But then it’s like nobody ever leaves you alone, and thinks they know you better than you do, and-”

“Uh, are you okay?” Zayn asks, and Camila hadn’t even realized she has tears coming down her face.

“No!” she says all at once, practically slamming her glass. She’s vaguely aware of how embarrassing she looks right now. “I left Fifth Harmony a few days ago and the other girls wrote up this big statement framing me as some traitor.”

He nods with a been-there look on his face. “I know how that one goes, kid.” She reaches for the alcohol again but Zayn takes it away from her. She looks at him, confused. “But trying to run away from your feelings is _not_ the answer.”

She laughs with a complete lack of comedy in it. “Running from my feelings is all I know how to do.”

He shakes his head and takes her hands in his before she can try to take her drink back. “Babe, listen to me. It’s not going to be easy at first, but I think you already knew that when you first made the decision to leave. But you need to give it time.

“You’ll make new friends, ones who really do love you and have your best interests at heart,” he continues. “And you’ll make new fans as well, ones who will support you whether you’re in a group or not. All you need is to give it time. Give it time, and keep your family on speed dial.” He smiles at her.

She smiles back, then lets her head fall into his lap with an exhausted sigh. “How do you have your life together so well?”

Zayn laughs loudly like that’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “I really don’t, it just seems that way.” He raises her head up to face him. “Now come on, I’ll take you home.”

“But I wasn’t finished getting my party on!”

“Oh yes you were.”

On the way home, Camila and Zayn let each other listen to their demos that they’re currently working on, telling the other what they think. Zayn talks to Camila about his experiences with losing friends and leaving the band and how to deal with all of it.

“Okay can I just… have your phone number or something? Because you seem like a great person to talk to.” Probably a little too straightforward, she thinks, but her brain-to-mouth filter is still turned off.

He just smiles though and plugs his phone number into her phone, probably not trusting her to type it (a smart decision, she decides).

That night, when she’s lying in her bed, she thinks about how right she was to idolize One Direction when she was a teenager. Zayn is an amazing listener – even to her drunk a** - and everybody who has him as a friend is very lucky.

As she finally falls asleep she repeats his advice over and over again in her head. Give it time. _Give it time…_


End file.
